Letter to the Editor: Regarding electricity, we need common sense

Advantages such as energy efficiency and reliability seem to elude Doctor Edelstein in his recent letter, “We need battery storage.” Rather what New York needs is a more robust electrical grid and additional base-load generating capacity.

For solar, building enormous parttime, agricultural land eating monstrosities across the state with their associated dangerous battery storage is placing an ill-fitting, foolish band aid on a gaping wound, self-inflected by the ideologically driven, incompetent politicians in Albany. For example, using solar panels rather than the 2000 megawatts of the decommissioned Indian Point Plant, a shutdown initiated by the Albany geniuses, would require the acquisition and total sterilization of many square miles of local real-estate.

The doctor’s letter is wrong on a number of counts. Vulnerability to storms is due to local pole and wire distribution systems, vis-à-vis falling trees and limbs, not overhead transmission lines on elevated towers. And, how does he think the energy would even be transported from his batteries?

Yes, risks from lithium batteries do exist, but the miniscule battery in my cellphone cannot compare with the risk of fire with the gargantuan size of a storage battery he touts.

Furthermore, the intermittent availability of solar and wind generation places a dangerous and destabilizing burden on the electrical grid. The system is finely tuned to match load vs. generation availability. With the constant, intermittent slugs of energy entering the system from solar requires the on and off loading of base load generation. For example, one cannot turn a nuclear power plant, or fossil plant on and off like a kitchen toaster to accommodate the temporary inflow of solar power.

The doctor’s Orange Environment Inc. organization would be well advised to understand what is really needed to provide reliable, continuous and economical energy for New York.

William E. Lemanski
Power Engineering Manager (Ret.)
Tuxedo